Devices for separating solid or liquid impurities from a fluid flow are commonly used within vacuum systems. Some examples can be found in the field of vacuum cleaners such as in US 2010/000,185 A1 in the name of LG Electronics INC, or U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,246 A in the name of Prat Daniel Corp, or in the field of removing air pollutants such as particulate matter or acidic gases from air such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,469 A in the name of Lone Star Steel CO.
The above mentioned examples describe devices comprising cyclone system mounted in parallel and comprising a common inlet for the air flow. After passing the inlet opening, the flow is directed through the parallel mounted cyclones, which remove the impurities due to the circularly induced flow. The impurities are typically allowed to fall under the gravitational force and are collected at the bottom of each cyclone. The purified air is directed through an outlet typically positioned on the opposite side from the impurities collector and further used within the system.
When such systems are tested to be introduced within a vacuum pump or a compressor for the removal of liquid from a gas stream flow, a plurality of drawbacks are being identified, such as the dimension of the system.
If we take the example of a vacuum pump, for which the aim is to achieve a pressure value at the outlet as small as possible, the volume occupied by such a system would be too big.
Another identified drawback is the impossibility of predicting the behavior of the fluid. Tests have shown that for such a configuration, the fluid does not use the two cyclones at the same time even if they are provided with a common inlet. Accordingly, the flow will either take the route of one cyclone or of the other, depending on which one of the two has a smaller pressure value within the cyclone, which makes it impossible to predict or calculate the parameters of the system such as the optical dimensions of different components.
Another drawback of such systems is the fact that within a vacuum pump or a compressor the filtration needs to be achieved for different phases of the fluid such as solid, liquid, vapor or a combination thereof, depending on the pressure achieved at the inlet of the vacuum pump or at the outlet of the compressor. Since a calculation of the system parameters is not possible, such systems would not allow a user to obtain the required results for all working pressures.
Yet another drawback is that such configurations cannot maintain a good quality of the liquid for a good liquid injection. Accordingly, the identified systems do not maintain a continuous flow of liquid in the impurities collector, which allows the formation of different temperature zones and potentially the deposit of solid impurities within said collector which can potentially cause blockages of the vacuum pump or of the compressor.
Taking the above mentioned drawbacks into account, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system that allows an overall reduction in footprint of the vacuum pump or of the compressor.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that allows a more accurate calculation of the system parameters such as the optimal size of different components and the liquid concentration at the outlet of the liquid separator.
Yet another object of the present indention is to maintain a constant temperature of the collected liquid and accordingly a good quality of the collected liquid for further using it in liquid injection.